Jemima J (2000)

So here's the thing. Before I purged all of my Amazon reviews I think most people would have realized that I used to be a huge fan of Jane Green. I loved Jemima J, Mr. Maybe, and even loved Bookends. Then I started to really not get many of Jane Green's later books and after a while just stopped making them my always have to buy books. However, I still re-read Jemima J, Mr. Maybe, and Bookends once every year or so. Jemima J holds a special place in my heart just because it was my first Jane Green book and though there are problems galore with the entire story-line and ending. I loved the character of Jemima so much that I always over look it. And up until now I would have probably have still given it 5 stars. However, I actually read this book with an offline friend of mine at the same time and we later on discussed it. And I didn't realize until she pointed some things out, how seriously messed up this entire story is. So I can say that this book is probably going to come out of my rotation for future use.

Told in the third person, we follow Jemima Jones. Overweight by 100 pounds (apparently she is obese), Jemima feels despair that her crush on coworker Ben is never going to realize how perfect for him she could be. Due to being sent off to a computer course with Ben and their colleague Geraldine, Jemima gets to know more about Ben and even becomes his confidant. However, due to the three of them talking on chatrooms on the internet, Jemima starts an online relationship with a guy named Brad in California. The only problem is that Jemima has lied about her job, her hobbies, and oh yeah about how she looks. Jemima uses this lie to push herself to being the thin woman that she has always wanted to be.

As I said above, I can't help liking Jemima. Maybe it's because part of me wanted to give her a hug and tell her that her weight isn't her problem, it is her crippling self esteem.

So below you will see my comments on the book and my friend's comments which seriously had me wondering if I just have really bad taste in books when I don't see some of the problems that she did.

Most of this book is following Jemima being treated horribly by people until her weight loss transformation. Jemima does start getting treated differently by people around her and she is still focused on being what she considers a "hardbody" and losing so much weight that someone will practically be able to see her ribs.

My friend thought this book was pointing out the wrong things to women and she got worried that if someone younger read it, they may try some of the same things that Jemima did to lose weight. For example, somehow Jemima loses almost all of her extra weight in 3 months. And I kid you not, I don't know how in the world I overlooked that detail all of the times that I read this book previously. It took my friend pointing it out to me that this was something that Jane Green had included in this book. I kept wondering as I re-read this how in the world did she not have any loose skin anywhere.

Second, Jemima has really bad self esteem. I think things would have been better in the book if Jemima acknowledge she had some issues to work through, and saw a therapist. I guess it doesn't make for a chick lit type of book though.

My friend loathed the character of Ben. Her exact words were and I quote:

For goodness sake! Every woman I know has some idiot like this in their past. You just become the guy's sounding board and you think to yourself if only I lost some weight, or were more funny, or something that he would be into you. The only problem is that Ben doesn't even start to think about Jemima until he realizes he doesn't have someone to listen to his shit! Ugh! I hate him!

Yeah...up until talking to her I always thought how romantic it was that Jemima was secretly in love with Ben.

The writing I always thought was quite good, though in parts I remember initially not understanding what a lot of terms means (British chick lit novel) and I thought the pacing was quite good.

My friend thought the writing was not as advanced as she would like it, and she thought the pacing was all over the place.

Apparently my friend booed the ending.


in the end she and Ben end up married



I stupidly said, well come on. I mean look at how in the end she realized that she needed to stop trying to force herself into being someone she was not. And she responded, that whole part where she went to California was awful and I wanted to scream throughout it.

So there you go. A book I used to keep on my comfort read list is now going on my shelf of shame. ( )

Cute read. ( )

I've started this book many times but got pulled away and it got put back on the bookshelf. It does start slow. For me it was like reading my life story, at least up to a certain point. Once I committed to the book I couldn't put it down. I love British wit and Jane Green always makes me happy with her fun banter. The book switches perspectives which normally confuses me but this time around I felt it added depth to the story. ( )

Loved this book to start. I have to say that I can always get behind a plus-sized leading lady, so of course I was in love with Jemima Jones... until I found out the Jemima is 5'7" and weighed 217 lbs at her largest. Jemima is described as being almost grotesquely fat, so when the acutal number of pounds she weights comes up, it stopped me in my tracks. "Wait, what??" I'm 5'4" and weigh 212, so what kind of fat monster does that make me? I don't feel like people stare at me on the street or only have relationships with me out of pity, and I don't really feel like I'm this HUGE BEAST (as a size 16/18), so that rather put me off. Here I was imagining Jemima as being actually FAT. I have a friend who's 5'7" and she weighs 263 lbs and, in all honesty, she's probably the most gorgeous woman I know. If Jemima was a real person who ate the way she does, she should seriously weigh far more than 217. So pffffft!

Basically, the message of this book made me mad... If you're fat, be ashamed of it, lie about it to people who can't see you anyway, and then diet and exercise like mad until you're thin. People are fat because they eat too much, so if you eat like a normal human being and exercise like crazy, you can be tiny in a matter of months! Then everyone will love you, and you can get the man of your dreams! Aside from THAT... I really loved this book. And okay, maybe I'm hoping that I can be like Jemima and literally work my ass off and be gorgeous too. So shoot me.

The dialogue was very natural and flowed realistically; okay, better than realistically since - let's face it - most people just aren't that witty in real life. The plot was fast-paced enough to keep the whole thing moving, though at times I found myself flipping forward a few pages to see what would happen next...

I love how Jemima keeps ALMOST having these fated meetings/happenings, but the timing is just the teeniest bit off, and she misses bliss by mere moments. By the end, I was literally sitting on the edge of my seat going "OHMIGOD, JEMIMA, TURN THE H*** AROUND!!!"

It still gets 5 stars, even though if Jemima was a real person who ate the way she does, she should seriously weigh far more than 217. All in all, this is a lovely book, and I will definitely be adding it to my hoard for keeps. ( )

I've found while reading some other reviews of this book that it mostly seems that you love it or hate it.

To me this book was a pretty standard "chick lit" type of book. At times I thought the main character Jemima was a little boring and the story was slow to start. It was also pretty darn obvious to me who she was going to end up with in the end. If you're looking for an easy, quick read I would say go for it. Other than that, maybe skip it. ( )